Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 142866 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142866 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
“That’s fair. Okay.”
“I thought this was your next step,” she says, her words curling at the edges with contempt. “I thought breaking into television was so important to you.”
“It is. If not with this show, there’ll be another one.”
“I think you feel so confident stepping away if it comes to that because you think Maverick can get you anything you want, and you’re probably right. I never used him that way, though.”
“And I have no intention of using him, either.” I make a fist on my desk, squeezing my frustration into a knot of calm inside my hand.
“Fucking a billion dollars makes you real bold, doesn’t it? A cash security blanket comes with spreading your legs for a rich man.”
“You would know.”
Her gasp on the other end tells me my aim was true. I hit my mark before I even realized I was throwing. This conversation is quickly slipping out of my control.
“Look, I think we should both take a beat,” I say. “I didn’t mean that, Zere, and I don’t think you actually believe I’m with Maverick for his money.”
“With him. You say it so easily like he’s always been yours. Wait. How long has this been going on?”
“We weren’t… the attraction was there, but we both fought it because we wanted to avoid this. We didn’t want to hurt you and knew how messy this could get.”
“Were you guys together at my birthday party and just fooled me? Just pretended not to be?”
“We decided after the party that we’d try to—”
“My birthday was two days ago,” she sniffs. “Did you fuck him on my birthday, Hendrix?”
Shit. What do I say to that? She rushes into the silence I’m not sure what to do with.
“You did that to me?”
“I didn’t do anything to you, Zere. I know it feels that way, but we haven’t done anything wrong.”
“You know what? I was gonna call girl code, but that’s for friends, and obviously we aren’t.”
The line goes quiet, dead when she hangs up without another word.
I toss the cell onto my desk and lean back in my seat.
“Dammit.” I rub my eyes. “That went great.”
I call Maverick.
“Hey, Gorgeous,” he says, the warm rumble of his voice wrapping around me like a blanket. “You on your way home to me?”
I smile in spite of the shit show of a call with Zere.
“Yeah. I got my vacation hair and I’m ready to frolic.”
“You can frolic to your heart’s content in Malibu. Plane is set to leave first thing in the morning. That works for you?”
“Yeah.” I release a pent-up breath. “I still have to get some work done while we’re gone, but I need a break. Especially after the call I just had with Zere.”
“Didn’t go well?”
I bark out a laugh void of all humor. “That’s one way of putting it. Disastrous would be another.”
“Maybe I should have talked to her first.”
“I don’t think that would have helped. I don’t think anything would except us not being together.”
“Well, fuck that.”
“Agreed,” I reply softly, meaning it in spite of the mess we’ve made.
“She was angry?”
“And hurt. She asked point-blank if I fucked you on her birthday,” I tell him with quiet misery. And it does make me miserable that she suspects and that it hurts her so badly.
“She was probably in bed with Charles that night,” Maverick says.
“Oh, undoubtedly. She’s in Paris with him now.”
“Wait, and she’s angry that we’re together? How does that make sense?”
“It doesn’t and yet it does. I’m a woman and on some level it makes perfect sense to me.”
“So what did she say about the show?”
“She needs to think about it, but I don’t hold out much hope that we’ll be able to work together. She seemed to agree that Chapel should still get a show, but it’s just my role that is in question.”
“We’ll figure it out.”
“I will,” I correct.
“Being in a relationship means helping each other, Hendrix. Are you saying you don’t want to help me when I need it?”
“Of course not. You know it’s not the same.”
“Because I have a lot more money? You’re gonna hold that against me?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“When Soledad was going through all that shit with her ex, were you there for her? You said she had to rebuild her life from scratch.”
“She did.”
“And did you and Yasmen help her?”
My thoughts drift back to the times we helped Soledad prepare gift baskets she sold to earn money. To all the times I’d ferry her daughters to practices so Soledad could work an event. To the times I gave her money for her mortgage when she was on the verge of losing her house. I would do it all again. A hundred times and for as long as I had to.
“Of course I helped Sol,” I say. “She’s my girl.”
“And you’re mine.”
There’s a possessiveness in his tone that should make my feminist tendencies bristle, but it instead makes something inside me purr.